My dad came to me about a month ago and asked what I thought of opening a dyno here in town. At first I thought it was a silly idea but then started thinking about it. There are no dyno's around here, you have to go about 2 hours in every direction to find one. I asked him if we really knew enough to open something like that because IMO the people running them should have some sort of expertise in the field and not just a couple guys that bench race all the time. I told him to be really competive we would need wideband, then we could get into the EFI crowd, but then neither one of use know jack about EFI tunning. We would either have to learn or pay someone, and that would cut into the profits and paying the place off. We haven't talked about it in a while. I think it would be awesome. There would have to be alot of planning first. So how much are they? Around 50K? Intrest rates are low right now right?

 

My friend has a Dynojet, the above ground one with a lift and it cost ~$50,000 with installation. He doesn't do just pulls, only tuning and charges $125/h. But it's a fully equipped performance shop with all the goodies. I doubt you could make much just running cars without having a performance shop (as others have also suggested).

Rich Krause

 

I gotta disagree, Rich... at least in my neck of the woods. There is a roundy round track local here and those guys would love to tune their own cars or just "check them out". Also, I think there are enough import guys running around even in my small town to keep the dyno going on weekends just so they could have bragging rights among themselves I really do think around here that you wouldn't have to know squat other than how to hook up the dyno and you could make money. However, to do it right then yeah, I agree, you'd have to invest a lot more and do the tuning and everything else. BUT, around here there are enough kids who would spend their weekly checks just to see what their car would do... they would then add a fart can and come back next week for another pull. If you can hook up some straps and a couple wires you could make some money I think

 

I thought and told my dad the exact same thing. But I wonder how long it would last? You would have to get a good repuation for repeat business and word of mouth advertising to keep new people coming through the door.
Jason

 

How long it would last would depend on how big the town is and how much the "kids" are into modding their imports... since that is where the money seems to be these days. BUT, during the time you are only doing generic pulls you could be gaining experience and accumulating some tools and such and eventually start doing more and more.

When I was looking into it, I didn't WANT to do anything else. Basically, all I wanted was a dyno for ME and somebody else to pay for it. I figured that if I could get one for $15k that would be around $250 a month for payments. I could do that in one weekend (probably one day) and I could then pay for my own dyno and it would cost me just one day per month of my time. I already have a job so wouldn't care about making my house payment with the dyno money... just making the dyno payment. Unfortunately, I had the illusion that those suckers only cost that much ($15k) and when I actually looked into how much they really did cost (around $50k) that kinda put the kibosh on my dyno plans and paying for it one day out of the month. LOL! But, if this is going to be a full time thing and the area will support it... hmmm... might work out?

 

I don't know how one would go about trying to find out how much demand there is for a dyno. Some people may drive two hours for a dyno session where the people can tune the car. Times like this I wish I would have gone to WyoTech and got a degree and take some business classes.